


They Would Have Loved You

by TriplePirouette



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Minor Character Death, Not Season 2 Agent Carter compliant, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, but he's already dead?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:34:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26679820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TriplePirouette/pseuds/TriplePirouette
Summary: Written for the prompt Steve Meets Michael by Tumblr's Captainpeggycarterismysexuality. It went a little sideways.
Relationships: Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers
Kudos: 34





	They Would Have Loved You

Meeting Peggy’s mother had gone, in general, better than he’d anticipated. She’d been unhappy he was American at first, but then rather happy to see he was at least a decorated war hero. 

She eventually warmed up to his (somewhat awkward) conversation and told Peggy somewhere around the second day that he might actually be a nice young man. 

He managed to win her over by the third day when he helped her clean out both the attic and garage. Peggy was absolutely incensed that her mother would use him as physical labor, Steve was just happy to make it into the woman’s good graces. 

Steve hadn’t objected when Peggy said they needed to leave early that next morning to catch their flight, even though he knew their flight didn’t leave until the evening. Once inside the cab, she gave the driver the address. “I need to make one more stop,” her voice was not as strong as it had been, and he wasn’t sure if it was from fatigue of being so “on” for her mother the past few days or if there was something else lingering there. “You can come with, if you like, but I would understand if you’d like to stay in the car.” 

“I can go with you,” he said gently, concerned at the wary look in her face as he laced his fingers with hers. 

He finally understood the look when the cab stopped at the gates of cemetery.

Peggy directed the man to park, and pulled more bills out of her small purse, paying him extra to wait with their bags in the car. She eyed Steve when he stepped out behind her. “You really don’t have to come.”

He paused, trying to figure out just exactly how she was feeling. “Would you prefer if I don’t? Do you… do you want to be alone?” 

He saw her gulp. “No, I… I don’t want to be alone.”

He had his hand in hers in seconds, and waited for her to give them a direction to move in. He could tell from the way she walked that she’d taken this path before. Maybe a few times, maybe many, but enough that she knew it by heart. 

It was the same way he walked to his parent’s graves. 

She stopped between headstones. One was larger, had only her father’s name and dates and a morbid space for her mother’s name when she would one day join him. The other said simply Michael Carter with the dates below his name. 

She’s quiet, for long moments, and he does nothing but hold her hand in his. 

“I know they’re not here,” she starts, sadness in her voice. “But I can’t come home and not stop… just…” She swallows something she means to say, and he squeezes her hand. “My father would have liked you. He was pragmatic. And funny. And would have killed my mother for asking you to clean out the attic.” She smiled at the stone. “Mostly because he was constantly telling her he’d get to it eventually.” 

Peggy let go of his hand and crouched down, sweeping away some leaves and pulling a weed from near the base of the stone. She turned, looking at her brother’s marker. “Now Michael, he wouldn’t have liked you. At least not at first.”

“No?”

She smiled sadly. “Mostly because he disliked anyone he thought wouldn’t be good enough for me.”

Steve laughed lightly. “I think I share the sentiment. I still think I don’t deserve you.”

Peggy looked up at him and swatted at his shoulder as she stood. “You know what I mean. He was a good big brother to the last. Always looking out for me, teasing me enough to toughen me up. Knowing me better than I knew myself.” 

Peggy reached out, wrapping her arms around Steve’s waist. He wrapped around her instinctively, pressing his chin on the crown of her head as she looked at her brother’s grave. “He would have said something pig headed about you and then I’d have said something stupid and mean to him and then he’d go out and get drunk and I’d have to drive his sorry ass home and I’d make his life hell with his hangover the next morning until he apologized.” Peggy sighed. “And then you two would have loved one another.”

They stay there for long, quiet moments. Steve hasn’t ever been comfortable in cemeteries, but he’d visit his parent’s graves long enough to feel like he’d done his duty. He always liked to believe his parents were with him, not chained to the cold ground behind their church in Brooklyn. 

“I know they’re not here, but…” Peggy started again. She held tighter to him, the fall wind blowing and sending a chill through her. 

“We can stay as long as you like,” Steve whispered, pressing a kiss on her forehead. 

“They would have loved you.” 


End file.
